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6 Factors to Consider When Hiring an Accounting Service for Nonprofits

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Are you a nonprofit organization that’s looking to take back control of your financial situation? Maybe you need help with how to budget for certain aspects of your organization. If so, then you need the help of professional accounting service.

Hiring an accounting service can help you receive the financial advice you need, get accessed to professional bookkeeping, and set up your nonprofit for success moving forward.

However, you want to make sure that you hire the right service for the job. Be sure to see below for several factors you should consider when hiring an accounting service for your nonprofit organization.

1. The Return on Investment

Too many nonprofits make the mistake of either attempting to perform accounting duties themselves or hiring the cheapest service possible to save on price. However, in doing so, you might be setting yourself up for failure in the future.

Your intent should never be to find the cheapest accounting service possible. It should be finding a service that gives you the highest return for your investment.

For example, find an accounting service that can help you just as much with your bookkeeping as it can with fundraising tips to kickstart your 501c3.

Any time that you reach out to an accounting firm, be sure to as about how much they charge and how they charge for their services. Some charge for each service they offer while others charge by the hour of work that those services require.

2. Communication With Their Clients

Hiring an accounting service for your needs isn’t just to perform the service, it’s an opportunity for you to learn! You’ll want to get an in-depth understanding of things like bookkeeping, fundraising, and so on.

To learn as much as you can, you need to find an accounting service that’s willing to teach you, not just perform the service. The more you learn, the better your nonprofit will be for it. 

An experienced accounting service can put complicated accounting aspects into layman’s terms for their clients. They can offer additional information and help give you tips on various aspects of your nonprofit’s costs.

3. Specialization in Nonprofit Accounting

Too many nonprofits make the mistake of hiring a business accounting service that doesn’t have experience working with nonprofits.

While there are a lot of similarities between nonprofits and for-profit businesses, there are also a lot of differences, and accounting is no exception. 

A nonprofit accounting service will have experience working with different programs that your organization is running. They’ll have an in-depth understanding of fundraising and how to maximize the donations that you receive.

They’ll understand the ins and outs of donor restrictions and how to keep your finances in accordance with the donor’s wishes. They’ll also help you delegate all funds you receive that are without restrictions and can be applied anywhere you have a need.

Make sure the accounting service you hire is dedicated to nonprofits. That way, you can ensure they will help you stay on-point with your funding and meet the expectations donors and volunteers have for your brand.

4. Variety of Services

If you’re hiring an accounting service for your nonprofit, then you want to make sure they can help you with several different aspects of your organization.

A reputable service will offer certified public accountants (CPAs) as well as bookkeepers to meet the requirements and requests of your donors. They’ll make it easy to track all the incoming and outgoing money for your nonprofit.

This all starts with the opportunity to reach out to an accounting service and tell them more about some of the accounting needs that you have. From there, they will sit down with you to discuss a game plan.

The plan that you and the accounting service put together will affect the pricing. They can outline the different solutions and services that they offer to meet your needs.

5. Check Online Reviews

For those of you that are planning to outsource your accounting needs, you’ll want to get a peek behind the curtain of what it’s like to work with them. There’s no better way to do that than checking the online reviews of previous and current clients.

They can give you insight into the accounting company’s process, communication, customer service, bookkeeping, and so much more.

Reading through their references and reviews can help you make an informed decision about which company to hire. 

Be sure to ask yourself some questions while you read through the comments. What services did those customers have the company perform? Were they happy with the service? What is the overall consensus of their customer support?

6. Goal-Setting Mindset

Your accounting troubles won’t be solved overnight. Remember, you want to find an accounting firm that helps you over the long haul.

For that reason, you should find a service that helps you set both short-term and long-term goals for your accounting.

You can tell them about your nonprofit’s five-year plan, and they can create an actionable set of goals to help you achieve it. 

“Your accounting troubles won’t be solved overnight. Remember, you want an accounting firm that helps you over the long haul.”

The Charity CFO

Use These Factors When Hiring an Accounting Service

Now that you’ve seen the several different factors that you need to consider when hiring an accounting service, be sure to use them to your advantage. 

Take the time to read this page to learn about how our services can help you with your nonprofit’s accounting and bookkeeping needs.

For more inquiries, please be sure to reach out on our contact us page and we will be happy to assist you further!

5 Reasons to Consider Outsourcing for Nonprofits

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Have you been feeling overwhelmed with the list responsibilities that you may have? Do you and your staff feel like you’re putting on too many different hats each day, some of which you have no experience with? If so, then you need to consider outsourcing for nonprofits.

Outsourcing is simple: it provides your nonprofit with the opportunity to obtain the experienced help it needs within sectors such as accounting, operations, and IT.

All without paying for an in-house employee.

There are many different perks of outsourcing for your nonprofit. Be sure to see below for more details on the benefits of outsourcing different needs that your nonprofit organization has.

1. Less on Your Plate

As the owner of a nonprofit, you might have to don many different hats throughout each workday. 

At times you could be performing executive duties, operations, accounting, IT, marketing, and more. It’s hard to balance all of these duties, and on top of this, delegate them as well as provide these tasks with the attention that they deserve.

In fact, the more that find yourself balancing them all, the less effective they’ll all be. That’s when it’s helpful to outsource certain responsibilities to give yourself a free hand.

For example, some of you might consider accounting to be a weakness for your nonprofit organization. Turn that weakness into a strength by outsourcing those needs to a professional accounting service for nonprofits.

Now that your accounting is in the hands of a trusted and experienced professional, you can maximize your time on things like operations and marketing your brand.

2. Professional Expertise

One of the hardest parts of running a nonprofit is feeling like you’re doing the organization a disservice with your inexperience. 

If you don’t have a volunteer or staff member with expertise in a certain area, such as accounting, then your nonprofit might suffer as a result. 

By hiring a professional accounting service, you’re getting your brand in connection with one of the best in the business. They’ll have experience with bookkeeping and accounting, which will help your nonprofit put a name to every dollar you receive.

Some accounting services also have certified public accountants (CPAs) that are well-informed on the obstacles that a nonprofit faces.

They can audit your current accounting set up to protect your organization from fraud and improve your internal controls and cash flow.

3. Reduced Costs

At times, it can feel like your nonprofit’s growth is at the mercy of whatever funds you receive from donations. There will always be a need to reduce costs in as many different ways as you can.

One of the largest costs that your nonprofit can undergo is hiring an in-house employee for your needs. Statistics have shown that paying an employee a $50,000 salary can actually cost you anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000 a year.

“Outsourcing can be a tremendous option…it can offer you the chance to learn from experienced professionals that want to see your nonprofit grow and thrive.”

The Charity CFO, LLC

Any time that you have an issue, just bring it to their attention and they can offer you several solutions on how to handle it. 

Even though you have a significant need to hire an in-house accountant, it might not be the answer. Instead, outsourcing allows you to get access to an experienced professional without paying the true cost of hiring an employee. 

There’s no necessary onboarding, no training that needs to be done. Simply ask around for different quotes on the service, find one that gives you the highest return on your investment, then hire them.

4. Thorough Explanation of Solutions

Plain and simple: you’re looking to outsource because you need to save money but get access to experience. You need someone that won’t just do the job, but can help you understand it for future reference.

Outsourcing can be a tremendous option for that. It can offer you the chance to learn from experienced professionals that want to see your nonprofit grow and thrive.

They can put difficult accounting aspects into layman’s terms that you can understand. That way, you’ll have a better idea of how to match donor’s requests and delegate donations that don’t have specific requests to them.

Initially, you’ll send an email to the accounting service telling them about some of the major issues you’re having. From there, they’ll schedule a time to sit down and discuss ways the service can help you resolve those problems.

Outsourcing allows your nonprofit to grow business relationships with experienced professionals that have your best interests in mind. Not just an in-house employee that’s looking to collect a paycheck.

5. Easy to Scale

Five years from now, your nonprofit isn’t going to look the same as it does today. It’s going to grow and expand in ways you never imagined.

If you hire in-house employees for your needs, then you’ll have to add more to your team to keep up with the growth. However, by outsourcing your accounting needs, you’re supplying your organization with a service that can grow with you.

Outsourcing is very scalable. The more needs that you have, the more services they can offer to meet them. 

They’ll be able to help your company adjust to the growth in your budgeting, payroll, donor requests, fundraising, billing, and reporting. They can also protect your organization from fraud while it grows.

Consider Outsourcing for Nonprofits to Help Your Organization Thrive

Now that you have seen several benefits of outsourcing for nonprofits, you must find the right accounting service to join forces with.

Are you looking to model your nonprofit after the best? If so, then read this article for more information on the 7 characteristics every successful nonprofit organization has.

For more inquiries, please be sure to reach out via our contact us page and we will be happy to assist you further!